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Olson is no finger-pointing indicter, however. It is in these final two chapters where “Open Horizons” transforms from a highly readable biography to an environmental call to arms. So, it is here, in the final two chapters, where Olson’s journey from thoughtful, observant, passionate lake country explorer to ardent, philosophical, outspoken conservationist is realized. As Olson says in the tenth chapter (of eleven), “When I first came to the Quetico-Superior, I had not thought about conservation.” Along the way, we learn how he was shaped by wilderness and by others connected to that wilderness, how education deepened that connection, how traveling and exploring places near and far broadened his horizons, and how the rapid modernization in the wake of World War I and the potential encroachment it made possible awoke him from the assumption that “things would never change, or that there were threats which might despoil the wilderness.” Just as in his own life, it takes the story a long time to get there. To be certain, Olson’s writings are infused with a love of the land and veneration for wild places, but it is here, in “Open Horizons,” where this deep feeling and connection transcend into universality. Instead, they must have recognized the opportunity for Olson to create something bigger in scale, grander in scope, more compelling in depth and feeling than the folky, if erudite, cabin classics he was already famous for. Olson’s books were highly successful and Knopf could have easily continued to publish new collections of his writings at regular intervals. Not that there’s anything wrong with that: Olson has a keen eye and a way with words that is both poetic and plainspoken, easily drawing the reader into his world, and creating a sense of awe and connection to him and with the place he cared about so deeply. The others, “Listening Point,” “The Lonely Land,” and “Runes of the North,” though shifting their focus or casting their gaze more intently hither and thither, appear to follow the same playbook. Though I haven’t read all the books that came before, I have read his first, “The Singing Wilderness,” a collection of adventures and observations about the North Country organized by season.
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It was, as Olson states in the opening acknowledgments, conceived by his long-time publisher, Alfred A. The others, “Listening Point,” “The Lonely Land,” and “Runes of the North,” though shif “Open Horizons,” originally published in 1969, is as close to an autobiography as Sigurd F. “Open Horizons,” originally published in 1969, is as close to an autobiography as Sigurd F. "With inexhaustible energy we are not only taming the last remnants of a primitive country, but molding it to satisfy our wants.". But I cannot disagree with comments like this: It is an odd spiritual sense that felt awkward and unconvincing to me. Too often the writing also became diffuse with Olson's too general love of the land and his sense of modern peoples need to return to something primitive in the wilderness as a reason for conservation.
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But these sections did not last long enough and the chapters were too easily diverted from topic to topic. Too often the writing also became diffuse with Olson's too general love of the land and his When Olson described childhood adventures in northern Wisconsin, canoe trips into the Boundary Waters (Quetico-Superior as he calls them, in MN and Ontario), the characters who used to guide those trips, or (too briefly) his efforts to protect those lands from commercial development, this book sang. When Olson described childhood adventures in northern Wisconsin, canoe trips into the Boundary Waters (Quetico-Superior as he calls them, in MN and Ontario), the characters who used to guide those trips, or (too briefly) his efforts to protect those lands from commercial development, this book sang.